'Webeurope are an example of the type of practical support that has been both show and demonstrated in their charitable commitment to our organisation. They have heard at first hand the true extent of the role of the British army, the trauma, hurt and anguish caused - importantly they have acted to heal, support and address in their own way the awful legacy left behind as a direct consequence of British state violence in our country.

'For that we are greatly indebted to them and in particular Karl Winn whose commitment to non-violence means, human rights, social justice, compassion and humanity are an example to us all.'

Mark Thompson, Relatives for Justice

Since the leaking of my private emails in April 2010 to The Sun newspaper, by the ex-British Military MD , of Forces Recruitment Services, and the subsequent half lies and outright fabrications that were published by The Sun newspaper, and the subsequently rewritten version by The Mail, I have had to endure a campaign of threats and intimidation because I refused to retract my statement in a private email that I would prefer to hire drug dealers, car thieves, and child molesters rather than give preferential treatment of employment to ex-British Military personnel.

By defending human rights, and highlighting the fact that the British Military are a discredited military force, my family, employees, and even my clients have been threatened, and I have been subject to death threats, and a hate campaign worthy of note for it's unbelievable and vicious pettiness. "You / Your wife / will be dead if you don't make a full apology by this time tomorrow" or the late night calls allegedly from serving British Army personnel based at our local 40 Commando Royal Marines HQ in Taunton. To all of my critics I have one single statement, I have the documented facts to backup my statements. If you dont accept the facts, I challenge you to dispute them.

It would have been a relatively easy task to issue an immediate public apology, and claim that such a statement was made in the heat of the moment - but in doing so I would have been in the position of not standing by my belief that the British Military has long since lost it's ability to claim to be a military force that adheres to international law in it's treatment of prisoners, and unarmed men, women, and children.

While it is true that over the last 40 years successive British Governments, and the Ministry of Defence itself have had a major role in undermining the reputation of the British Military, it is still a fact that far too many who serve in the British armed services have such an obvious lack of moral courage, let alone an inability to adhere to international law and acceptable standards of human behaviour, that the British Military has long ceased to be worthy of the national pride that they enjoy today by an uninformed public who are not aware of the reality of British military involvement in Ireland, Iraq or Afghanistan.

I firmly believe that if the British public knew the full extent of the suffering and injustice inflicted upon the thousands of unarmed men, women, and children who, over the past 30 years, have fallen victim to the British Military, the nation would demand justice and closure for it's victims, as well as implementing an immediate program of change to restore the British military's damaged reputation.

British military involvement in the north of Ireland has resulted in over 400 unlawful killings of unarmed, men women and children by the British military and police services. To this day the families of these victims are still campaigning for justice and closure. In Iraq and Afghanistan the number of cases where the British Army are alleged to have killed unarmed civilians runs into hundreds, and possibly thousands.

In April of this year a British "enquiry" into the deaths of 8 Iraqi "prisoners" revealed that the use of torture and beatings by the British military was quite common, despite the fact that under UN law and the Geneva Convention such treatment of prisoners is clearly illegal.

Over the coming months we will also learn more details of the British Military and Security services role in the secret abduction and torture of it's citizens. These tactics come as no surprise to the people of Ireland - The British Government, and it's military and intelligence services, have used torture and imprisonment without trial as standard practice in the north of Ireland for years.

I'll not waste my time here highlighting in detail the appalling record of the British Military involvement in Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan as Amnesty International and other human and civil rights organisations have already gathered sufficient evidence to call for an international investigation into such war crimes, and neither will I waste my time reminding my critics the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have every right under international law to use force to expel the US and British military forces from their homeland, but I will question the dual standards which many of the British public have when it comes to justice and self determination. Britain and the US were signatories to UN laws that specifically made the invasion of other countries illegal - yet here we have the British and US Governments using their military forces in an manner that has historical parallels in law, and in practice, with Nazi Germany, and the USSR.

If it is now acceptable for the British military to kill unarmed men, women, and children, to torture and beat prisoners to death, abduct civilians, imprison without charge or trial, and even invade other nation states, then we as a nation should have the honesty to say so. It may suit The Sun / The Mail and many of their uninformed readership to regard our British military personnel as "heroes", but to the overwhelming majority of people throughout the world, let alone the victims families, the British military are anything but heroic. In my opinion the British Military are probably no more worthy of our respect than the "Black and Tans", or the Wehrmacht or Waffen SS, or any other discredited military force.

Human and Civil Rights are not values we should demand for those who support us - but values that we (and our military forces) must be willing to adhere to even for those who oppose us. Anything short of that is pure hypocrisy.

For your info we do employ ex-military personnel, but we employ people on their individual merit, and despite their possible military involvement - not because of it. But then, as with many other employers, we've also been willing to offer employment to ex-drug dealers and car thieves, at least they have been have been held accountable for their criminal actions, unlike those in the British military who are able to hide behind the veil of social respectability and acceptance, safe in the knowledge that the British Government and the right wing British media will always lie, whitewash, and defend them at all cost - no matter what crimes they are guilty of.

If after reading the above, my personal politics are not to your liking - my answer is "So what !!" This is still supposed to be a relatively free country, but what freedom we do enjoy has certainly NOT been achieved by the British military (historically the military and police services have always served the interests of the ruling elite) - It has been achieved by the struggle of a handful of individuals speaking out and campaigning, even when to do so was unpopular and at times outright dangerous.

Regards

Karl

Readers who wish to comment on any of the above can contact me by email karl.winn@webeurope.co.uk or by phone on 07979-234666